that depicts a society whose focus is solely on the enhancement of the human body. In the text, the characters are the their Nacirema people, who live in northern America. The Nacerima people center around this idea that the human body is ugly and that it is prone to sickness and aging. Horace Miner describes several rituals the Nacirema people partake in to better their physical health and appearance. Some of these rituals take place in a shrine, the rituals consist of brushing teeth and excreting. Other rituals are services the Nacirema people go to a specialist to get done. Horace Miner describes these services as…
When I read Body Rituals Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner the first time, I couldn’t imagine how a culture could behave this way and live their daily lives following these rituals. They believed that their bodies were ugly and its natural tendency was to debility and disease. They devoted much of their time trying to prevent these characteristics…
In this paper I discuss what point Horace Miner was trying to make is his paper titled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema". Horace’s paper is about America but in the perspective that America is a tribe of third world country or such. I go through the individual topics, which mostly make fun of American’s vanity, and I describe what he is really talking about. I try to summaries Horace’s paper and put it in “American” terms.…
After reading the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, I can’t help but notice blatantly obvious similarities between our culture and theirs. Their rituals, rites, and customs are bizarre in nature and seem to illustrate a nearly obsessive fascination with the human body. The main focus of their culture appears to be shaming people based on their appearance and forcing them to conform to the societal norms. Upon further reading, I noted that while the Nacirema put a high value on the upkeep of their bodies, they made it exorbitantly expensive to do so, even if a tribe member was dying of sickness and the supplies, or “potions”, were readily available to cure him/her. This seemed backwards. There are some aspects of the Nacirema culture…
Ethnocentrism is human nature to define one's own culture as the more superior and more intellectual. That also includes the way human nature to look down upon the practices of other cultures because they are dissimilar and/or goes against their own customs. Individuals see ethnocentrism daily, in all qualities of life. The United States of America is a crucial example of ethnocentrism. The people of this nation tends to neglect and disregard other cultures, believing that American culture is superior. Horace Miner wrote a book based on the ethnocentrism in the American people, however, it leads them to believe they were reading about another culture elsewhere.…
This article written by, Horace Miner, was my first read in where I was shocked to discover such barbaric rituals from other areas of life. I took the time to re-read this article several times. I have learned of many different cultures in where people do things that seem out of the ordinary; however the beliefs and practices of the Nacirema people just seem outlandish.…
The first thing I noticed about the article, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner is that Nacirema is American spelled backwards. That caught my attention right away and I thought to myself how interesting. Then as I started reading further into the article, I realized that the Nacirema people are us. What I found most interesting about the Nacirema people is how obsessed and focused we are on our health and body. There is always a fad diet that guarantees amazing results or a new cross fit workout that will mold our body like those on American Ninja Warrior. I was bothered by the statement that said “the fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease” (McCutheon, 1). After I read this sentence…
In the poem, "Rite of Passage," by Sharon Olds, the speaker, who is a mother, goes into detail about her son's birthday party celebration. Let us first begin by analyzing the title of the poem, "Rite of Passage," Encyclopedia Britannica describes a rite of passage as a ceremonial event, existing in all historically known societies, that marks the passage from one social or religious status to another. Given the plot of the poem about a young boy having his peers over celebrate his birthday, one might be automatically compelled to say the rite of passage is for him, however with a closer analysis of the poem in its entirety, one can argue the title…
Body Ritual among the Nacirema” tells the story of the “unusual aspect” lifestyle and the rituals of the Americans. Miner uses a unique approach to describe not Nacirema but the Americans by using an outsider's view, a person who does not understand American's lifestyle. Nacirema is American spelled backwards Miner writes about is every household having a “shrine room” and those individuals with more power contain more than one. He remarks that the shrines rituals ‘are not with family but are private”and the box or chest which contains “magical potions”. The “shrine room” Miner describes is the bathroom and the box with magical potions is the medicine cabinet. The most important potions are described to be obtained from the medicine man who writes it down on a piece of paper in an “ancient and secret language” then is taken to the herbalist. Miner is talking about the American culture the medicine men are doctors the ancient writing are the scribbles on the prescription forms that somehow the pharmacist can understand. This helps us (Americans) realize different things about our culture and see how others view our culture.…
In the Hispanic culture, the significance of having a quinceanera is to show a girl becoming a young lady, to thank god for all he has done and to show her off to her family and friends. It is a very religious ceremony. It is traditional for the Quinceanera to choose special friends to be apart of what is called the Court of Honor. Usually, these people are her closest friends, her brothers, sisters, cousins: The people she mostly honors. In the Quinceanera's Court of Honor all the young girls are called damas and all the young men are called Chambelanes. A quinceanera always starts off with going to church and having a mass to give thanks to god then right after a reception is held to celebrate with family and friends. In an American culture, the significance is the same to show a girl's coming of age. Even though it is not as religious as a quinceanera, a sweet sixteen is an important rite of passage that celebrates approaching adulthood and is usually celebrated with a big part. "While sweet sixteen celebrations lack the religious influence of other coming-of-age celebrations, some traditions do surface" writes Kiri Picone. As seen on TV shows like "My super sweet sixteen" a tradition of receiving a car is shown to represent having responsibilities. Unlike in a quinceanera, a sweet sixteen doesn’t really have a court of honor, well some might but its not really called anything its just a group of her closets friends to share the spotlight with. Interestingly, many families today are merging their Hispanic and America heritages by choosing to celebrate a combination of both a quinceanera and a sweet sixteen.…
From this speech, it can be derived that Beowulf is very obviously trying to impress the Danes and King Hrothgar by telling dramatic tales of his “adventures”. Specifically, the last two lines of…
2. Which social group (s) organize their lives around the lives of their animals? C…
Seen as a crucial and pivotal element in the process of deepening spiritual understanding, religious ritual plays a fundamental role in building both personal and cultural identity, an act that expresses and emphasises the things that bind a faith community together. In all religions, the milestones of a practitioner’s life are highlighted and celebrated through ritual and ceremony. These events often include both birth and death, marriage and coming of age. Several features play an indispensable role within rituals, such as the presence of representative symbols, people or religious leaders and music, features that have been central to both worship and ritual since primordial…
Families are full of odd quirks and traditions. Whenever my dad’s family gets together for a birthday we have to set up a spanking train that the birthday boy has to go through as many times as his birthday is. We all have our separate ways that we do things, and this is no exception to how families treat a growing teenager. Every family gives their child different responsibilities, freedoms, and guidance as he grows older. My family is no exception. As I have scanned back on the last couple of years, I have found a few rituals in which I was slowly promoted, rank by rank, to the status of adulthood.…
A rite of passage is a ceremony and marks the transition from one phase of life to another such as childbirth, transition from adolescence to adulthood, courtship and marriage, parenthood, divorce, old age and death (Crapo, 2013). There are many rite of passages in our lives if we choose to mark and celebrate them. Let’s discuss courtship.…